President Xi Jinping Gives a Joint Written Interview to the Media of Trinidad and Tobago, Costa Rica and Mexico (3)

Next year will mark the 40th anniversary of our diplomatic ties. I hope the two sides will take this opportunity to work concertedly to elevate our friendly relations and mutually beneficial cooperation to a new height.

Trinidad and Tobago is a major oil and gas producer in the Caribbean region. With strong complementarity and tremendous potential, bilateral cooperation in the energy field may very well become a new growth point in China-Trinidad and Tobago partnership. Governments, financial institutions and enterprises from the two countries can go ahead with more exploration of energy cooperation in new forms and on a larger scale.

Given the great distance between the two countries, bilateral trade may be affected by high transportation cost. China has adopted effective tariff measures to facilitate trade with Trinidad and Tobago and other Caribbean countries. Many products of Trinidad and Tobago that are traditionally competitive are subject either to zero-tariff or to fairly low tariff rates in China. In fact, Trinidad and Tobago export to China in the recent decade has grown by nearly 30 times, reaching 140 million U.S. dollars last year. I hope enterprises of the two countries will enhance their cooperation. Trinidad and Tobago companies are welcome to do business in the Chinese market.

Q: How do you view the growth of China's relations with Costa Rica? What are your expectations of bilateral cooperation in the future?

A: President Laura Chinchilla paid a state visit to China in August 2012. We had a very nice meeting. President Chinchilla's willingness to develop relations with China left a deep impression on me.

Although China and Costa Rica established diplomatic ties only six years ago, the two sides have seen rapid and steady development of bilateral ties as well as fruitful cooperation in all fields. Bilateral relations have become a model of cooperation between countries of different size and national conditions.

Costa Rica is the third Latin American country to sign a free trade pact with China. The pact came into effect in August 2011. The national stadium of Costa Rica, which was built with the assistance of China, has become the symbol of friendship between the two peoples. The Confucius Institute at the University of Costa Rica is the fist of its kind in Central America, and it has provided a platform for promoting understanding and friendship between the two countries. Facts have proved that bilateral friendly and cooperative relations conform to the fundamental interests of the two countries and their people and that they have strong vitality and huge space for development.